This is why it's better to get chicken pox out of the way when you're younger.
Total Immersion

I've been waiting half my life for the phrase "in your face!" to finally die. Now that it seems to be fading, I may have to contend with the rise of "On your face," as in "I'm gonna kick your ass, on your face!"

It's all thanks to a new technology that allows game players to actually fight their digital battles on their own faces. The iOS game Skinvaders uses an augmented-reality (AR) platform to take advantage of the devices' front-facing cameras and transform players' faces into the game terrain on which alien invaders must be defeated to save the world, or your face, or whatever...

The demo of the game--check it out in the video below--and its face-tracking capabilities is actually pretty impressive, although I will be keeping it away from my 4-year-old daughter to avoid middle-of-the-night tears over the "face aliens" populating both her pores and nightmares.

In what is one of my favorite canned press release quotes ever, Bruno Uzzan, CEO of Total Immersion, which makes SkinVaders, described the game this way:

Players are literally brought into the game as they fight the invasion of SkinVaders intent on taking over their face.

The statement also has a nice line about players "saving face." Well played Total Immersion. Way to "fit the profile."

About the author

Crave freelancer Eric Mack is a writer, radio producer, and podcaster based in Taos, N.M., but he lives in Google+. He's also managing editor of Crowdsourcing.org and has written e-books on both Alaska and Android. E-mail Eric.
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